Thin walled attached silver filled gold jewelry

ABSTRACT

A silver filled gold jewelry wire item includes an inner precious metal core, such as silver, and an outer gold layer. The outer gold layer has a predetermined thickness of from about 0.0001 inch to about 0.002 inch, preferably no more than 0.001 inch thick, which is much thinner than durable hollow wires of at least 0.004 inch in thickness or greater. A forming process draws a gold sheet strip into an open channel shaped member into which a solid silver core is placed at ambient temperatures. The open channel shaped member is closed by further rollers at ambient temperatures and welding of a seam when closed about the solid core. The resultant solid tubular gold jewelry wire item resists damage from diamond cutting knives, and can be used to create jewelry rope chains, earrings and bangles.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser.No. 09/100,726, filed Jun. 19, 1998.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to durable precious metal jewelry.

BACKGROUND

[0003] In recent years due to market acceptance of products having lessgold content (ie. lighter weight than solid gold jewelry), the U.S.jewelry industry has gone through many changes. The latest trend isusing the combination of silver and gold in making the jewelry objects,thus achieving a less expensive product by virtue of the fact that goldis priced about 70 times more than silver. Hollow wire or tubing withthin walls has been used for over 50 years. The widespread use of hollowrope chains and their popularity over the last 20 years has spawnedseveral patents in this area.

[0004] The United States is the largest market for rope chains (800million annually), and hollow rope chains in particular. Price wars havedriven the producers to discover new ways of making a genuine goldproduct with thinner and thinner walls.

[0005] With the only criteria being to maximize economic price, poorquality and durability are the general result of making thin hollow goldrope chains. For example, hollow rope chains made of 0.009-0.014 inchdiameter wire with a 0.002-0.003 inch wall thickness and having a weightof 1-2 grams/foot represent a significant portion of the U.S. rope chainmarket. The customer return rate of such hollow rope chains istremendous. Some of those brittle hollow gold rope chains never reachthe retail stores, since the chain is damaged in handling and shipping.Such hollow rope chains have a very short life; the smallest stretch orpressure on the 0.002-0.003 inch wall thickness can damage the fragilehollow rope chains.

[0006] Most of the hollow tubing or wire products use copper, steel,plastic or aluminum rod or wires as a temporary installation core atsome stage in the manufacturing process. The purpose of such rods orwires is to temporarily support the thin walls of the outer gold tubingor to help coil or form the links of the gold product. Thesenon-precious core materials are disposed of by an acid or caustic sodaprocess at a later stage in manufacturing, resulting in toxic effluent.

[0007] Moreover, the hollow gold tubing from which hoop earrings andbangle bracelets are made presents great difficulties in coiling thetube. To prevent the thin hollow gold wall from collapsing, the tube isfilled with fine sand prior to the coiling process. Still, damage iscommon during the coiling process. Due to such problems, a minimumpractical wall thickness for this product remains 0.004-0.005 inch.

[0008] Background art includes multicolor chains of two differentprecious metals, such as yellow gold and white gold. The firstmulticolor chains, which were fashionable about fifteen years ago, weremade by a specially developed machine which automatically fed differentcolored wires alternately to the assembly process. In another process,electroplating the chain with a different colored alloy and diamondcutting the chain to expose the inner alloy produced two-color chains.

[0009] U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,228 of Hillel describes a multi-color facetedrope chain and fabrication method. By using metal alloy tubes ofdifferent colors, thereby creating overlying layers of different colorsin the cross section of the wire, the various layers can be exposed bydiamond cutting the chain to different depths. In diamond cutting, ajewelry chain is wrapped around a lathe and cut by a stationary knifeheld against the edges of the rotating chain. This is a much improvedprocess compared to the plating process for producing multicolor chains.However, Hillel '228, in creating a multicolor chain, makes reference torope chains made of links produced by wrapping a thin sheet of preciousmetal around a circular rod wire or core of the second metal of thesecond color using the same techniques as are now used in producing thehollow links for hollow link rope chain. This method therefore limitsthe outer layer of the gold sheet to 0.0025 inch or thicker, as noted inHillel '228.

[0010] In the non-precious metal chain costume jewelry market, so calledgold filled articles exist, such as noted in U.S. Pat. No. 3,778,238 ofTyler et al for a composite metal article having a superficial gold overlayer. However, the interior of the costume jewelry article containsnon-precious metals, such as copper alloys.

[0011] Furthermore, as noted on pages 5 and 8 of “The Gold FilledStory”, a 1982 trade publication of the Gold Filled Association, themaking of gold filled article is an expensive process involving bothpressure and heat. To make a gold filled sheet, a layer of karat gold ofproper thickness is fused to a suitable supporting copper alloy. Thenunder pressure and very exacting controls of heat and time, the twometals are fused together so that the bond between gold and supportingmetal is flawless and permanent.

[0012] With a similar technology, gold filled wire is made by insertinga core of copper alloy into a gold cylinder and then they are fusedtogether under controlled heat and pressure, so that a single round rodis made.

[0013] The rod is drawn repeatedly through powerful wire reducing millsand drawing die. This process requires special equipment for the bondingof the two metals together, and heavy rolling mills capable of handlingthe heavy rod.

[0014] In contrast to the gold filled prior art, as it will be disclosedin the Summary and Detailed Description of the present invention herein,by experimenting with silver, it has been found that no heat is requiredfor completing a bonding between the gold and silver, therefore a moreshorter technology can be developed for making a two metal wire or twometal stamped jewelry piece.

[0015] A relatively much thinner tubing than the rod in the gold filledapplication can be formed while a core of silver wire is beingintroduced. In this way the starting point of the wire making process isthe use of a thicker wire, which can be drawn through drawing dies, andthe rolling mill can be avoided as well the heating process.

[0016] As defined by the trade definition of a “gold filled” product inthe aforementioned 1982 publication of The Gold Filled Association, inorder to label a product “gold filled”, in the bonding process heat andpressure has to be present, in order to form a permanent bonding betweenthe two metals, namely, gold and the non precious alloy.

[0017] Mechanical attachment of a thin layer of gold, such as in a goldfilled product, is allowed to be marked as “gold filled”, if a layer ofat least 10 Karat gold is permanently bonded by heat and pressure to oneor more surfaces of supporting metal, thence rolled or drawn to aprescribed thickness.

[0018] The Karat gold layer must be at least {fraction (1/20)}th byweight of the total combined gold and base metal.

[0019] Other non-precious metal articles are made by electroplating,such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,448 of Kohl. The electroplatingof gold jewelry is a process in which thin layers of gold can bedeposited on the surface of a non precious metal by boiling with heat ina caustic chemical bath.

[0020] A product can be marked as “electroplated” when at least anequivalent of 7 millionth of an inch of fine gold is deposited on themetal.

[0021] In contrast to electroplating, such as in Kohl '448, the presentinvention proposes to achieve a thin wall product utilizing lessexpensive procedures than the gold filled process available for thesmall manufacturer and to create Karat and non Karat jewelry wire or rodproducts, made only with precious metals such as gold, silver andplatinum.

[0022] It is safe to assume that in the gold filled process, if thecopper alloy is substituted with silver, the process of bonding silverwith gold permanently with controlled heat and pressure would be able toproduce the wire or rod the present invention has in objective.

[0023] However, the present invention does not need such controlled heatand pressure, other than annealing during the process, nor does it needthe heat and caustic chemical bath of electroplating.

[0024] Furthermore, it has not been proposed in the prior art to utilizea precious metal core with an outer layer of another precious metal,such as gold, in a jewelry rod or wire.

[0025] Therefore, the prior art discloses disadvantages and cumbersomeheated and pressurized processes for creating thin walled gold filledand electroplated jewelry products.

[0026] Furthermore, when hollow jewelry products are thus created, thewalls are fragile and easily damaged in the finishing processes, such asdiamond cutting, or during shipment.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

[0027] An object of this invention is to create a jewelry product havinga lower gold content than hollow gold tube products currently produced,with the strength of solid wire products.

[0028] A further object of this invention is to make a rod or wire of aprecious metal, with an outer layer of Karat gold and a core of silver.

[0029] Another object of this invention is to produce a rod or wirehaving a gold outer layer under one thousandth of an inch thick with asilver reinforcing core.

[0030] Yet another object of this invention is to provide a practicalcost-effective manufacturing process to produce a precious metal wire orrod product.

[0031] It is yet another object of this invention to provide a rod orwire having a gold outer layer with a process at ambient temperatures,without excessive heat, pressure or caustic chemical baths.

[0032] It is another object of this invention to provide a hollow tubewith a silver inner layer and a thin outer layer of gold or platinum byan efficient process.

[0033] It is yet another object to provide a metal plate for jewelrystamping with a silver inner layer and a thin outer layer of gold orplatinum.

[0034] It is still yet another object to improve over the disadvantagesof the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0035] In keeping with the foregoing objects and others which may becomeapparent, the present invention includes a tubular gold jewelry wireitem having a longitudinally extending thin outer layer of gold and alongitudinally extending inner structural core of a suitably soft andyet rigid material, such as a precious metal, preferably silver.

[0036] In another embodiment, a metal plate with an inner silver layerand a thin outer layer of gold is stamped into non-tubular jewelry itemssuch as earring pieces or bracelet charm pieces; which may be flat orthree dimensional, depending upon how they are stamped.

[0037] The jewelry wire item includes a thin gold outer layer having apredetermined thickness which is from about 0.0001 inch, up to about0.002 inch thick, preferably from about 0.0001 to about 0.001 inchthick. The silver core is securely bonded to the thin gold outer layerof the jewelry item.

[0038] A typical item of gold jewelry of the present invention is madeby first rolling a sheet of gold into a thickness of from about 0.009 toabout 0.10 inch thick. Then the gold sheet is trimmed and passed througha slitter to trim it into a gold strip, having a width equal to thecircumference of a gold tube to be formed.

[0039] The trimmed gold strip is wound onto a spool and the trimmed goldstrip is fed from the spool through a roll former having one or morepairs of rollers and guides which act in a plurality of roll formingsteps. For example, the trimmed gold strip is flattened and then formedfirst into a channel-shape and then the channel-shaped gold strip isforced into a U-shape. The silver core material is introduced from aspool onto the center of the U-shaped gold strip. The combined silvercore material and U-shaped gold strip member is fed through a pair ofpressure rollers for putting pressure on the sides of the U-shaped goldstrip, thereby partly closing the gold strip circumferentially aroundthe silver core material.

[0040] Then, the partly-closed gold tube containing silver core materialis fed through a set of rollers for completing the circumferentialclosing of the gold strip into a tube surrounding the core material, andleaving a seam at the top of the gold tube.

[0041] The cored gold tube is then fed through a pair of guide rollersfor precisely locating the seam for welding, and the seam-located coredgold tube is fed through a welder for welding the seam.

[0042] The seam-welded cored gold tube is then fed through exit rollers.

[0043] Thereafter, the seam-welded cored gold tube is further fedthrough a wire-drawing die at least twice to reduce its diameter and topressure-lock the core with the gold-tube outer layer. This creates asolid wire of a thin gold outer tube in a secure adhesive contact withthe core material.

[0044] The cored gold wire is then fed through diameter-reducing wiredrawing dies, so that the gold outer-layer thickness is reducedproportionally to the diameter reduction of the cored gold wire frombefore to after being subjected to the diameter-reduction wire drawingdies.

[0045] The cored gold wire is continuously fed at ambient temperaturesthrough the diameter-reducing wire drawing dies until a diameterreduction of the silver cored gold wire of from about 50% to about 60%has been achieved. Finally, the silver cored gold wire is preferablyannealed at a temperature of about 1200 degrees Fahrenheit.

[0046] The welder may be a laser welding head, a tungsten inert gas(TIG) welder, or a plasma welder.

[0047] The resultant silver cored gold wire is durable and economic inprice, and may be produced as a jewelry chain, a rope chain, a diamondcut chain, a diamond cut rope chain, an earring, a diamond cut earring,a bangle, a diamond cut bangle or other similar jewelry pieces. In anoptional embodiment the pressure locked plates can be stamped intojewelry forms without being formed into jewelry wires.

[0048] In a further optional embodiment the silver cored gold wire isproduced by producing a sandwich of gold and silver layers joined bysoldering and then formed into a silver cored gold wire or a gold-silverplate which can be stamped.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] The present invention can best be understood in connection withthe accompanying drawings, in which:

[0050]FIGS. 1A through 1G are schematic illustrations of the productforming process of the present invention wherein,

[0051]FIG. 1A shows the roll forming line; and,

[0052]FIGS. 1B through 1G show various product cross sectional views atvarious process points along the roll forming line of FIG. 1A;

[0053]FIG. 2A is a cross sectional size comparison of a gold plate atthe start of the product forming process as in FIGS. 1A through 1G;

[0054]FIG. 2B is a cross sectional size comparison of a gold tube over asilver cored during the product forming process thereof;

[0055]FIG. 2C is a cross sectional size comparison of the gold tubelocked to the silver core during the product forcing process thereof;

[0056]FIG. 2D is a cross sectional size comparison of the final wireproduct during the product forming process thereof;

[0057]FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view of the gold tube product with ahollow silver core;

[0058]FIG. 4 is a process flow chart of one embodiment for the productforming process of the present invention; and,

[0059]FIG. 5 is a process flow chart of an alternative product formingprocess of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0060] Existing hollow gold chains have the goal of providing the sameaesthetic appearance as their solid counterpart made from the sameoutside diameter wire. With a wall thickness of a minimum 0.002 to 0.003inch, the existing chains have between 30 to 45% of the gold content ofa similar solid chain.

[0061] In contrast, the goal of the present invention is to use a solidsilver core with a much thinner outer gold layer, such as no greaterthan 0.002 inch, preferably about 0.001 inch or less in thickness, toprovide a superior product in terms of strength and durability at asignificantly lower cost due to reduced gold content. It has been foundthrough experimentation that using a soft metal, such as silver, as astructural inner core, with a gold outer layer, and drawing the combinedsilver filled gold tube through dyes will result in a significant wallreduction of the outer layer in a predictable manner.

[0062] The result is a solid tubular gold jewelry wire which has anouter precious metal layer and an inner solid precious metal rod core,which is produced by the process of first feeding at ambient airtemperature a solid precious metal rod core into an open, longitudinallyextending precious metal outer tube. Then the open longitudinallyextending precious metal tube is closed, and fed through a wire drawingdie at ambient temperature reducing its thickness and pressure lockingthe precious metal core to the precious metal outer tube, therebyproviding a solid wire comprised of the outer precious metal layer in asecure adhesive contact with the precious metal rod core.

[0063] For earrings or bangles, the thickness is 0.004 inch or less. Asshown in drawing FIGS. 1A-1G, to form silver filled gold tube 1, first akarat gold outer layer, after casting, is rolled into a thin sheet 2 notless than 0.009-0.010 inch thickness. A slitter cuts gold sheet 2 to onehaving a width equal to the circumference of the outer gold tube to beformed.

[0064] For example, FIGS. 1A through 1G show a roll forming process toproduce silver core gold item 1. A six or seven pass roll formingmachine having pairs of rollers, and guides between them, graduallyforms the gold sheet into a tube. Trimmed gold sheet 2 is fed from spool1 into the first pair of rollers 3, 4 which cuts the sheet 12 shown incross section in FIG. 1B. Rollers 5, 6 form sheet 12 into gold member 13having the profile shown thereat. Rollers 7, 8 further form gold sheet13 into a “UU”-shaped member 14 of FIG. 1D.

[0065] At this point, silver wire 10 from spool 9 is guided by guidemember 11 into the center of U-shaped gold member 14, as the combinationenters roller pair 16, 17. These latter rollers 16, 17 put pressure onthe sides to draw wire 10 through while closing member 15 around silvercore 10, as shown in FIG. 1E. Roller pair 18, 19 continues to close goldmember 15 into closed tube 20 around silver core 10, with a seam 27 atthe top as shown in FIG. 1F. Guide rollers 22 then precisely locate seam27 for welding by welder 21. This may be a tungsten inert gas (TIG)welder, a plasma welder or a laser welding head.

[0066] Roller pair 23, 24 feeds the final gold wire member 25 out ofthis process step, as a gold tube with a loose silver core as shown inFIG. 1G.

[0067]FIG. 2B shows an enlarged cross section of gold member 25 fromFIG. 1G A slight gap 28 exists between silver core 10 and gold outerlayer 2 a.

[0068]FIG. 2A shows an end cross section of gold sheet 2 before it isformed into a tube. As shown in FIG. 2A, gold sheet 2 has a thickness Pwand the width is equal to B times diameter Ti of round silver filledgold member 1, which is equal to the circumference of the gold tube withdiameter Ti.

[0069] After drawing the roll formed gold tube 1 with silver core 10 twotimes through a wire drawing die, the resulting gold silver core goldwire tube 1 will be 0.006 to 0.008 inch smaller in diameter, as shown inFIG. 2C, where Tf is slightly smaller than Ti. This drawing processlocks silver core 10 to the outer gold layer 2 a in such a close fit ascharacterized by intermolecular forces, so that it will now behave likea solid wire of a single material. The subsequent drawing of the goldsilver wire progresses to a final size wire having a gold outer layerthickness reduced proportionally from the starting wall thickness Pwwith the same proportion as the reduction of the diameter Tf to thefinal wire diameter Wf.

[0070]FIG. 2D shows a final wire cross section with diameter Wf and goldthickness Gf.

[0071] In the illustrations of FIGS. 2A-2B, the overall ratio from Tf toWf is about 10:1, to illustrate the cross sectional area reduction,while still permitting annotation. A more typical ratio is in the rangeof 20:1.

[0072] Several different wire sizes with a variety of gold thicknessescan be achieved. The following formulas will be used to calculate agiven final wire size and gold thickness:

[0073] Outside tube diameter as roll formed . . . Ti

[0074] Outside tube diameter after locking silver core to gold tube . .. Tf=Ti−0.008

[0075] Final wire diameter . . . Wf

[0076] Diameter reduction ratio . . . R=Tf/Wf

[0077] Initial plate thickness before rolling . . . Pw

[0078] Final gold thickness . . . Gf

[0079] Diameter reduction ratio . . . R=Pw/Gf

[0080] As an example, suppose one prefers to have a 0.018 inchesdiameter silver core wire with a gold thickness of 0.0005 inches. If onestarts with a gold sheet thickness of 0.010 inches, the initial startingtube diameter can be calculated as follows:

[0081] R=Pw/Gf=0.010/0.0005=20

[0082] R=Tf/Wf=Tf/0.018=20

[0083] Tf=0.018×20=0.360 inch (9.14 mm)

[0084] Ti=0.360+0.008=0.368 inch, the starting tube diameter.

[0085] After a 50-60% diameter reduction of the wire, an annealing at1200 degrees F is required. In the manner described above, the presentinvention permits the fabrication of silver filled gold wire made of agold outer layer of from 0.0005 inches up to about 0.002 inchesthickness and having a silver core.

[0086] The process described above can also be used to produce banglesand earrings with a gold layer of 0.0005 inch up to 0.004 inches over ahollow silver core. The cross section of such a material is shown inFIG. 3 with inner silver tubular core 30. For practical reasons in thecase of earrings and bangle products, to achieve the desired gold layerof gold tube 1 a, silver core 30 has to be introduced in the welded goldtube only after the wall of the gold tube has been reduced to the limitsallowed by present technologies (such as from 0.006 inches to about0.007 inches). This is necessary due to the fact that to get the finaltubing of 2-3 mm diameter with a wall of 0.0005 inches thickness,starting with a 0.009 inch wall, one should have an initial gold tubediameter of 36 mm, which is totally impractical. A 12-15 mm diametertubing with a 0.009 inch, gold thickness achieves a final gold layer of0.0015 inches at from about 2-2.5 mm diameter tube with a silver core.To achieve a thinner layer of gold, the starting gold tube wall has tobe less than 0.009 inches.

[0087]FIG. 4 is a process flow chart showing, in a concise fashion, theprocess steps described above.

[0088] An alternate process or method which is more efficient atproducing larger diameter product such as for bangles and earrings ispresented. Either a tubular hollow core (as shown in FIG. 3) or a solidcore product can be produced in this manner. The outer precious metalcan be platinum , instead of gold, with a gold or silver inner core.

[0089] In this process, which is concisely presented in the flow chartof FIG. 5, the first step is to roll a gold plate to the desiredstarting thickness. Here, the process example is of a product with asilver core and a thin gold outer layer. A silver plate is rolled to itsthicker starting thickness. A sandwich is formed of the gold plate, athin layer of silver solder, and the silver plate; this is clampedbetween steel plates and heated in an oven to melt the silver solder.The resulting bonded gold/silver plate is rolled down to the desiredfinal thickness with intermittent annealing.

[0090] After this, the plate is slit to the desired width and stampedinto a desired jewelry form or is fed into a roll forming machine toform a tube. The seam of the tube is welded by an appropriate techniquesuch as TIG or laser welding.

[0091] If a solid core is desired, solid silver wire is fed into thecenter either during the roll forming process step or after the tube iswelded. The tube is then drawn down to the desired size withintermittent annealing steps.

[0092] A numerical example of the process will more clearly describe thesteps involved. Suppose the objective is to produce a 6.2 mm (¼ inch)diameter tube with a 0.001 inch gold layer over a 0.009 inch silverlayer. A 1 mm (0.039 inch) gold plate and a 10 mm (0.39 inch) silverplate with a 0.001 inch silver solder layer in between is clampedbetween two steel plates and placed in an oven. The oven can either be acontrolled atmosphere electric oven or an open flame gas oven. Thesandwich of gold-solder-silver is brought to the melting point of thesilver solder which is approximately 640 Celsius (1210 degreesFahrenheit).

[0093] The gold-silver plate is then rolled down to 0.25 mm (0.010 inch)with intermittent annealing at approximately 540 Celsius. At this step,the gold layer will be approximately 0.025 mm (0.001 inch) and thesilver layer will be about 0.225 mm (0.009 inch). The gold-silver plateis then slit to a width of 19.5 mm (0.766 inch) and fed to a tube rollforming machine and welded. If at this time a smaller tube with athinner outer gold layer is desired, the tube of 6.2 mm diameter can bedrawn to a smaller size with a resulting decrease in wall thickness and,consequently, a thinner layer of gold.

[0094] Depending on the final diameter of the product, either theoriginally described process or this process will be advantageous. Forsizes under 1 mm (0.039 inch) diameter, the first gold-silver coreprocess is more advantageous. For sizes over 1 mm (0.039 inch) diameter,the second method, gold-silver solder-silver plate, and silver core willbe preferred. The savings in labor cost due to the number of drawingsand annealing steps required are the governing factors in deciding whichmethod should be used.

[0095] Earring and bangles made of tubing due to functionalcharacteristics have to stay hollow. Therefore the following alternativemanufacturing methods are used to produce hollow thin walled silverfilled gold jewelry.

[0096] For example, as also noted in FIG. 3, a gold-silver plate, wherethe gold is soldered to the silver, is rolled to a thickness where thegold layer becomes less then 0.002 inch and where the silver layer isabout 0.007-0.009 inch. It is roll formed and welded into a tube.

[0097] The tube then is drawn to the required size to produce earring orbangles, etc.

[0098] The following is a numerical example to produce a 6.2 mm (¼ inch)diameter tube having a 0.001 inch gold layer and a 0.009 inch silverlayer.

[0099] A gold plate of 1 mm (0.039 inch) and a silver plate of 10 mm(3.9 inch) with a 0.001 inch silver solder in between the gold andsilver plate is clamped together in a sandwich between two steel platesand is placed in a oven. The oven can be a controlled atmosphereelectric oven, or open flame gas oven. Then, the sandwich ofsilver-solder-gold is brought to the melting point of the silver solder,approximately 640 degree Celsius (1210 degree Fahrenheit).

[0100] The gold-silver plate is then rolled down to a thickness of 0.25mm (0.010 inch) with intermittent annealing at approximately 540 degreeCelsius.

[0101] At this time the gold layer is approximately 0.025 mm (0.001inch) and the silver layer is 0.225 mm (0.009 inch). The gold-silverplate is processed trough a slitter machine to get the right width ofthe plate of 19.5 mm (7.66 inch). The plate is then fed in the tube rollforming machine and welded.

[0102] If at this time a thinner gold layer is required, the tube of 6.2mm is drawn to a different outside diameter while the wall thickness isalso reduced to a smaller size and subsequently a thinner layer of goldis produced.

[0103] The above numerical example can be modified to any parametersrequired by the final product.

[0104] The technology of a solid thin wall silver filled gold wire;depending on the final parameters, can be processed in the same way asdescribed above, by making first a gold-silver and solder-silversandwich, which is than formed into a tube, and during forming a solidsilver wire is introduced as a core.

[0105] The combination of a silver-gold tube with the additional silvercore is than drawn to the final required size. Dependent on the finalsize wire, one or the other method is utilized. For sizes under 1 mm(0.040 inch) of wire diameter the first method of a gold-silver core ismore advantageous. For sizes bigger than 1 mm (0.040 inch) of wirediameter the second method of a gold-silver with solder-silver plate andsilver core is preferred.

[0106] As noted before, in the process of FIG. 5, after the gold-silverplate is slit, it can be optionally stamped into a desired jewelry form,or its can become a wire by the aforementioned described method.

[0107] The savings in labor cost due to the number of drawings andannealing required are the governing factors in deciding which method tobe used.

[0108] The gold-silver with solder-silver plate can be used with anyadvantages over the previously described applications to substitute inthe prior art of hollow rope chain manufacturing and to get a similarheavy wall product as the only gold hollow rope chain.

[0109] It is further known that other modifications may be made to thepresent invention, without departing from the scope of the invention, asnoted in the appended claims.

1. A solid tubular gold jewelry wire item comprising a longitudinallyextending outer layer of gold and a longitudinally extending inner coreof a precious metal, wherein said jewelry wire item has a wall thicknessof from about 0.0001 inch to no greater than 0.004 inch in thickness. 2.The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 1 wherein further saidpredetermined thickness of said gold outer layer is from about 0.0001 toabout 0.002 inches in thickness.
 3. The solid tubular gold jewelry wireitem of claim 2 wherein further said predetermined thickness of saidgold outer layer is from about 0.0001 to about 0.001 inches thick. 4.The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 2 wherein further saidinner core comprises a precious metal alloy.
 5. The solid tubular goldjewelry wire item of claim 2 wherein further said inner core comprisessilver.
 6. The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 1 whereinfurther said core is securely bonded to said gold outer layer.
 7. Amethod of making a solid tubular gold jewelry wire item having an outergold layer of a predetermined thickness and an inner solid preciousmetal core, comprising the steps of: a. rolling a sheet of gold into athickness of from about 0.009 to about 0.010 inches thick; b. trimmingsaid gold sheet and passing said gold sheet through a slitter to trimsaid gold sheet into a gold strip having a width equal to thecircumference of said solid tubular jewelry wire item to be formed; c.winding said trimmed gold strip onto a spool; d. feeding said trimmedgold strip from said spool through a roll former comprised of aplurality of pairs of rollers and guides in a plurality of roll formingsteps further comprising: 1) forming said gold strip into achannel-shaped member; 2) forming said channel-shaped gold strip into aU-shaped member; 3) introducing precious metal core material from aspool onto a center of said U-shaped gold strip; 4) feeding saidcombination of said precious metal core material and said U-shaped goldmember through a pair of pressure rollers for putting pressure onrespective sides of said U-shaped gold strip, thereby partly closingsaid gold strip circumferentially around said precious metal corematerial into a partly-closed gold tube; 5) feeding said partly-closedgold tube containing said precious metal core material through a set ofrollers for completing said circumferential closing of said gold stripinto a gold tube surrounding said precious metal core material, andleaving a seam at a top of said gold tube; 6) feeding said cored goldtube through a pair of guide rollers for precisely locating said seamfor welding; 7) feeding said seam-located cored gold tube through awelder for welding said seam closed; 8) feeding said seam-welded coredgold tube through exit rollers; and then e. feeding said seam-weldedcored gold tube through a wire-drawing die at least twice to reduce itsdiameter and to pressure-lock said core with said gold-tube outer layer,thereby creating a solid wire comprised of a gold outer tube of apredetermined thickness in a secure adhesive contact with said preciousmetal core material; and then f. feeding said cored gold wire throughdiameter-reducing wire drawing dies wherein said gold outer-layerthickness is reduced proportionally to a diameter reduction of saidcored gold wire from before to after being subjected to saiddiameter-reduction wire drawing dies; and then g. continuing to feedsaid cored gold wire through said diameter-reducing wire drawing diesuntil a diameter reduction of said cored gold wire of from about 50% toabout 60% has been achieved; and then h. annealing said cored gold wireat a temperature of about 1200 degrees Fahrenheit.
 8. The method ofclaim 7 wherein further said precious metal core material comprises aprecious metal alloy.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein said preciousmetal core material comprises silver.
 10. The method of claim 7 whereinsaid finally produced cored solid tubular gold jewelry wire has a goldouter layer of from about 0.0005 inches to about 0.002 inches inthickness.
 11. The method of claim 7 wherein further said weldercomprises a laser welding head.
 12. The method of claim 7 whereinfurther said welder comprises a tungsten inert gas (TIG) welder.
 13. Themethod of claim 7 wherein further said welder comprises a plasma welder.14. The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 5 wherein saiditem is a chain.
 15. The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 5wherein said item is a rope chain.
 16. The solid tubular gold jewelrywire item of claim 5 wherein said item is a diamond cut chain.
 17. Thesolid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 5 wherein said item is adiamond cut rope chain.
 18. The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item ofclaim 1 wherein said item is an earring.
 19. The solid tubular goldjewelry wire item of claim 1 wherein said item is a diamond cut earring.20. The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 1 wherein saiditem is a bangle.
 21. The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim1 wherein said item is a diamond cut bangle.
 22. A solid tubular goldjewelry wire item having an outer precious metal layer of from 0.0001 toabout 0.002 inch thickness, and an inner solid precious metal rod core,produced by the process of: a) feeding at ambient temperature a solidprecious metal rod core into an open longitudinally extending preciousmetal outer tube; b) closing said open longitudinally extending preciousmetal tube; c) feeding said open longitudinally extending precious metaltube having said solid precious metal rod core through a wire drawingdie at ambient temperature; d) reducing its thickness and pressure; e)taking said precious metal core to said precious metal tube; and,thereby creating a solid wire comprised of said outer precious metallayer in a secure adhesive contact with said precious metal rod core.23. A solid tubular gold jewelry wire item comprising a solidlongitudinally extended outer layer of a precious metal and a solidlongitudinally extended inner core of a soft precious metal soldered tothe outer layer, wherein said jewelry wire item has a wall thickness offrom about 0.0001 inch to no greater than 0.004 inch in thickness. 24.The solid tubular jewelry item of claim 23 where the said soft preciousmetal inner core is a tube.
 25. The solid tubular jewelry item of claim23 wherein said item is a chain.
 26. The solid tubular gold jewelry wireitem of claim 23 wherein said item is a rope chain.
 27. The solidtubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 23 wherein said item is adiamond cut chain.
 28. The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim23 wherein said item is a diamond cut rope chain.
 29. The solid tubulargold jewelry wire item of claim 23 wherein said item is an earring. 30.The solid tubular gold jewelry wire item of claim 23 wherein said itemis a diamond cut earring.
 31. The solid tubular gold jewelry wire itemof claim 23 wherein said item is a bangle.
 32. The solid tubular goldjewelry wire item of claim 23 wherein said item is a diamond cut bangle.33. The solid jewelry item of claim 23 wherein said outer layer is gold.34. The solid jewelry item of claim 23 wherein said outer layer isplatinum.
 35. The solid jewelry item of claim 23 wherein said innerlayer is gold.
 36. The solid jewelry item of claim 23 wherein said innerlayer is silver.
 37. A solid gold jewelry item comprising an outer layerof gold and a solid inner layer of a soft precious metal joined to saidouter layer, wherein said gold jewelry item includes said outer layer ofgold with a wall thickness of from about 0.0001 to no greater than 0.004inches.
 38. The solid gold jewelry item of claim 37 wherein further saidpredetermined thickness of said gold outer layer is from about 0.0001 tono greater than 0.002 inches thick.
 39. The solid gold jewelry item ofclaim 37 wherein said item is a flat plate stamped to a predeterminedshape.
 40. The solid gold jewelry item of claim 39 wherein said item isan earring piece.
 41. The solid gold jewelry item of claim 39 whereinsaid item is a bracelet charm.